FIFTY YEARS AT SEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 12

FIFTY YEARS AT SEA.

CAPTAIN BERNECH’S RETIREMENT. A SPLENDID RECORD. Nature does not specialise in the matte" of Austrian manners, but when she does evolve one he is usually of the best. ■ The unexpected so often happens, but who would have thought that the little lad of 13, who in the dam past sailed away in a coasting schooner from the port of Triest would one. day find himself the veteran master of the U.S.S. Coninany’s fleet, with a splendid record behind him, and for the future an honoured old age, in sight of the sea, in his home on the sunny heights of Roslyn. This is the position in which Captain John Bernech finds himself placed after having served the Union Steam Ship Qpmpany in the capacity of master on the coast, of New Zealand for over 35 years. During this period ho lias never, had an accident worth mentioning, and his reputation for seamanship is second to none on the coast. Last October ho came ashore owing to ill-health, and ho has recently undergone an operation. This, with the iact that he has reached the age at which masters resign from the company’s service, is responsible for his retirement. Captain Bernech is essentially a sailor of the old school. Consequently, when asked for an interview on the 10th Inst., he replied with a point blank refusal. He is also a man who considers tarry hands to be no disgrace. The pungent whiff of spunyarn appeals to him as dees the familiar fragrance of new-mown hay to a townwearied farmer. So our reporter talked to him of ships and their habits, and soon the old sailor heard the call of the' sea, and standing in his porch, as though it were his chart-house, spoke of days that are gone. The difficulty was that the captain insisted in treating episodes which the public would deem marvellous as mere matters of course. The days of one’s youth are always green, and what sights, adventures, people, dashes of colour would the Mediterranean not furnish to a boy in those days. The captain saw himself riding lazily over a languorous limitless 'blue; " scudding before it ” up a stormlashed Adriatic; or hovo-to under Cyprus in the self-same Euroclvdon that wrecked St. Paul. But he took no made from these experiences. They would have been anyone else’s who chanced to have been there. They were all in the day’s work, and ho was paid for what he did in good Austrian money, and for what he had left undone with the tail end of the jib halyards. Then cam o deep sea voyages in the old failing ships—desperate windjammers, bluff--1 sowed and h.igb-storned—where the “ salt . .orse ” and “hard tack.” and the men who • onsumod the same, were harder than they •• re now. In these craft John Bernech, ■ - afore the mast, went to and fro across ; ;e latitudes till one voyage he found ’ imself in the barque Cambodia in the ■ out hern This vessel was wrecked ' ”* the New Zealand coast on Christmas - , a - T ’ 1866, and the crew, finding she was rout to break-up, abandoned her on the I tar. Many seamen, after such an cx- i renenoe. would have, as it is called in ■ maritime circles. “ swallowed the anchor ” and gone farming or something. John Bor- i nech went straight back to'sea. After' making several voyages in vessels belong- ! mg to the old Panama Company, he spent four years round and about Nelson, turn- , mg his hand to anything that offered. A good many things offered. Shipbuiklino- I appliances wore not. and the feats pci” i formed by am?tear shipwrights and boiler- i makers with makeshift tools did great credit ' ch ®- ,r ingenuity, persistency, and strength I -vi Bernech came clown (by sea, of course) I to Dunedin in 1871, and went-, before the mast in the Maori, 174- tons, one of the three vessels of the Harbour Steam Company. It would be/-interesting to see this little craft alongside tho present flyer of the ferry‘ service, 3399 tons, and 6500 i.hp Subsequently, from A. 8., Mr Bernech was made (Second officer, and afterwards cantain, of tho Maori. This he affectionately refers to as his first .command. H-& toolc | service with the Union Steam Ship Company j on the advent of that concern, and was j given pommffld of the Beautiful Star on : March 3, 1876. The Beautiful Star was 177 tons (gross), ' 119 feet long, . 17 feet beam. 10 j feet depth, and was built in a ’ Northumberland yard in 1862. She | carried her engines well aft, so her funnel j 'Btpcd only a little forward of tho mizzert j piast, rigged for the old-fashioned spanker. 1 tpho/fore and main masts earned, fixed

gaffi?, and tho sails, when not set, were brailed to the masts in slender cylinders reaching from the throat halyards to luff. A donkey engine stood just forward of the foremast and drove the winch. She had a “ half-round ” hurricane deck about amidship, a small turtle-backed foc’sle, and the old-timer poop. Not much to look at 1 beside tho Ma-rama, for instance; but 1 ships, like all things else, are gauged by comparison, and in these days the Beautiful Star was numbered among the local leviathans. She was one of the three steamers taken over from the Harbour Steam Company of Dunedin by the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand on its formation in 1875. Captain Bernech was frequently trans-' ferred from one ship to another. He does not seem to have had much “ shore service.” His knowledge of tho New Zealand coast soon became almost a byword, and accordingly his services were in request. He seems to have commanded in turn practically ail the Union Steam Ship Company’s boats on (ho coastal runs* He can speak with an intimate knowledge of the Beautiful Star, two of the Maoris,, the Matiinapua,, Hawea, Flora, Rotorua, and later tho To Anau, Ta rawer a, Taki.ne, the ill-fated! Waikare-, and the Monowai. He knows these vessels from stem to stern, understanding their various temperaments; and almost feels what each will do under oer- ■ tain and diverse circumstances. For many years he was with the Penguin, on tho Dunedin-Wellington-Onehunga run, when this was carried out by the Penguin, Hawea, and Rotorua. The Penguin (824tons) was built at Glasgow in 1864-, and in 1880 was purchased by the Union Steamship Company from the Bird line. She was lost, it will be remembered, in Cook Strait in February, 1909. Captain Bernech spoke of ibis first trip as chief officer with the Mao-ri in N-ove-m- ---! her, 1874, when, under charter, she made j her way round tho Middle Island, j touching at the Sounds, and leaving the j West Coast mails. Then he was made ! master. Sometimes it would be “South about, and at other times “ North about,” but month in, month out, for a period of 35 years found him somewhere off the coast of New Zealand. Be remembered taking a party, after copper, to Ducky i.,ound. These fiords of the- south have evidently laid their spell upon him. With a -distant look in his eyes he was evidently on-o© more on the dock of one of his ships, treading again the tortuous passages. “ I can see them,” he said ; “ah, I can see tho h-eadiancs and the tide wash as plainly as though I was there.” i Though—or, perhaps, because—he is not adept in the higher planes of the science of navigation, his acquaintanceship with landmarks is almost incredible. To him the coast of New Zealand reads like a printed page, and the face of the waters, to most men so inscrutable, is to Captain Bernech an open book. It is said that even in the thickest fog be was never at a loss for his bsarings. He seemed to know intuitively whither the currents set, and tho place to a fathom where they would drift his vessel j steaming at certain angles to them. Many j men, notably fishermen, possess a wonder- ; ful local knowledge, but few indeed have ' extended it to embrace the broken coastline of all New Zealand, j Throughout the interview Captain Bor- | nech resolutely refused to say anything about parts he had played in tryingmoments. Though known' to have been | beset with countless storms and weathered ■ them all without straining a rope yarn, all j he would say was.- “ When it came on j dirty weather I was there; that’s all.” | Asked which was the worst storm he had i ever encountered, tho captain made a ! mental search of the New Zealand littoral and the seven oceans, from which he returned with the information that the gales had been so many and so bad that ho really could not particularise. Some men have a passion, others hobbies, but to this master mariner tho sea has been existence. He has lived for it, and, -had it not been for his extraordinary skill and unerring judgment, lie might have ; died for it. The obvious question was: ( “ And what will you do now, captain, that ’you are no longer afloat?” j He took in his house, his garden with j one comprehensive glance, and held up his j hands. “Man,” he said, “I can turn : them to anything.” There were evidently 1 visions of alterations and , repairs with a ’ nautical twist in them. And then his gaze I fell upon the oc-ean, broad and blue, be- • yond St, Kilda, and he sighed a little. Hillmen may desijre their hills, but a mariner’s love for the sea never grows cold, ’ ‘ - L ■ a.

With all his special knowledge, the immense quantity of priceless information he must have amassed, all those adventures he declined to speak of—tho deduction was plain. Why don’t you write a book? asked the reporter.

The captain laughed. “Why,” he exclaimed, “I would rather go out and do a hard day’s work than sit down and write a letter oven.” The following letter from Sir James Mills managing director of the Union Steam Ship Company, to Captain Bernech speaks for itself: —

“ Your connection with the company has extended over such a long period, and has been in every way so satisfactory, that it is with feelings of more than ordinary regret that I admit that you have reached the age at which masters retire 'fresin active service in the company. It is now more than 33 years since you were appointed master of the Beautiful Star, so that you have had a longer service as master than anyone else in the fleet.' The directors have at all times felt the utmost confidence in your character and seamanship, while you have enjoyed in an equal degree the esteem of your fellow officers. Your career ha.s been marked by exceptional freedom from accident to those ships under your command, and now that you have reached the close of your period of active service it must bo very gratifying to you to look back upon such a fine record. _ I have pleasure in saying that, as a practical mark of our appreciation of your services, the directors have granted you half-pay for two years, from the Ist inst.” The letter concludes with tho hone of the writer that Captain Borneoh’s health will soon bo quite restored, and that be may, be long spared to enjoy the rest he has so well earned by long and faithful service. Captain Bernech has spent 50 years at sea., and has been connected with the riso of shipping in New Zealand from the days of the City of Dunedin and the old lightdraught paddle boats up bill the present Ho has been one of the makers of New Zealand’s maritime hialjory. Many will be glad to know that h© has come through his operation remarkably well, and seems to be in a fair way to regain his health.